Brome Hall, just before demolition. Date: 1958. Picture: EDP LIBRARY
- Credit: Archant
Some are in ruins, some are lost to time, others are guarded by ghosts: many of the country houses Suffolk once boasted have since fallen victim to the wrecking ball.
Weird Suffolk has chosen 10 favourites that remain only as ruins, photographs, distant memories or in one case a mystery, including a hall with a magical stone in its courtyard, one where plastic surgery was carried out in the parkland, one whose grounds are now home to a festival and one that hosted a notorious ghost hunter for a night.
Some are in ruins, some are lost to time, others are guarded by ghosts: many of the country houses Suffolk once boasted have since fallen victim to the wrecking ball
Author Liz Trenow
- Credit: Liz Trenow
Author and former journalist Liz Trenow, whose novels include The Silk Weaver and Under A Wartime Sky, says she looked closer to home for her latest tale.
I was brought up in Little Cornard in the beautiful Stour Valley in Suffolk and one of my earliest memories is of visiting the church at nearby Wormingford where a stained glass window dramatically depicts a crocodile being slain by a knight on a white charger.
The Wormingford Dragon, portrayed in the stained glass window of St Andrew s Church
- Credit: Liz Trenow
There is something terrifying and yet rather comical about the long white legs dangling like strands of spaghetti from its scary teeth. The image fired my imagination and, aged about eight, I wrote a story about it. Decades later, the legend has become the inspiration for my eighth novel, The Secrets of the Lake.
James Balme
The Church of St Boniface, Bunbury
- Credit: James Balme
To Bunbury, in search of the well-endowed wife of a dancing master and a seven-foot hero.
There is little known about the history of Bunbury prior to the Norman conquest but it’s believed the name is derived from Saxon times. The church of St Boniface that stands in the village is thought to be the site of a much earlier Christian place of worship where a timber structure stood around the year 755 AD.
Bunbury was recorded in the Domesday survey of 1086 AD under the name of Boleberie and the lord of the manor was named as Robert Fitzhugh, whose lands included Beeston, Burwardsley and Spurstow. The Domesday survey also recorded the presence of a priest at Bunbury, which was rare for Cheshire at this time.